


Blood in the water

by NeverComingHome



Category: The Following
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-17
Updated: 2013-03-17
Packaged: 2017-12-05 14:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/724142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverComingHome/pseuds/NeverComingHome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe catches Ryan and fills him in on a couple things.</p><p>Spoilers for 1.8</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood in the water

 

 

Joe and Ryan were laughing, tears in the corners of their eyes, and unable to recall how many times they’d filled and emptied the glasses on the table between them. Ryan rubbed at his forehead with the back of his hand, reached for his tumbler, overshot and touched Joe who was reaching for the bottle. He met Ryan’s hand in a shake.

 

“It’s nice to meet you.”

 

“What do you mean, we‘ve been talking for hours.”

 

“Oh, no, before it was business with the professor this and detective that. Now, now I am finally meeting Ryan Hardy.”

 

“Oh yeah? How’s he holding up?”

 

“Not bad,” Joe grinned and dropped Ryan‘s hand to take up the bottle, “not bad at all.”

 

“Well you, professor this, have been holding up from the start. You‘ve been a real help.”

 

He upended the glass of watery bourbon and melting ice into his mouth, crushing a shard between his teeth and feeling it numb his tongue. It felt good. Joe was still looking at him with soft eyes and the corner of his mouth barely lifted, like he was reading all of Ryan’s sins and forgiving him for each one. It was kind of comforting.

 

“What, I got something on my face?”

 

“No.” Joe reached across the table to pat Ryan‘s knee. “Come on, I have something to show you.”

 

~*~

His wife thought he was crazy, but the bookcases were his pride and joy. Separated by genre and carved with literary symbols of each book he acquired, they were like Stonehenge, fanned out around his desk.

 

Ryan had always loved crime novels where the good guys had scars, the bad guys had names like Squeak Monroe or Douggy Callahan, and the women were always dressed in red while holding cigarettes as long as their trigger finger. Joe let him trace the outline of a Victorian detective then steered him towards the newest. The books that were to line the shelf were covered in plastic and stacked neatly at its side. So far Joe had only gotten Frankenstein’s mansion, but planned on giving it the full treatment.

 

“Geez, this is amazing. Look at the detail.”

 

He chuckled. “Believe me, I have.”

 

Ryan couldn’t remember laughing so much, alcohol or not, and said as much. The study was dimly lit by an oil lamp Joe claimed put him in the writing mood; he’d came up with some of his best lectures by candlelight. He put his hand on the small of Ryan’s back and pressed the bottle to his chest.

 

“Drink up, there’s more.”

 

“More? So let me get this straight? You are a professor, ex boxer, writer, artist, closet sleuth,” He turned around, his fingers around the neck of the bottle, “bartender on the side, and bookcase maker-”

 

“I don’t think that’s what it’s called.”

 

“-what else could you possibly have up your sleeve? You an astronaut, huh? You gonna walk on water?”

 

Joe kissed him.

 

 

 

 

 

_Present_

 

 

“I was going to kill you the first night I let you stay in my house, did you know that?”

 

“You could‘ve tried.”

 

“Oh, come on, you don’t need to put on a show for them.” Ryan glared at the followers who were lined up on the staircase and pressed against one another in the doorway. You think they don‘t know?”

 

“...”

 

“I noticed you didn’t write in your book about the time we had sex against the biggest clue you ever got. For shame. Your head was banging against the tell tale heart at some point, wasn’t it? They,” he gestured vaguely to the others with his knife, “found it very romantic.”

 

Ryan’s hand slipped out of the cord around his wrists and he lunged at Joe, wrapping his hands around his throat while the other man waved his followers down. He maneuvered his arms and brought the butt of the knife hard into the bullet wound on the back of Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan disengaged and was greeted with a kick that sent him sprawling on his back, clutching at his heart as he struggled onto his hand and knees.

 

“As I was saying.” Joe placed the sharp end of the knife beneath Ryan‘s chin to lift his gaze up. “I’m afraid I’ve grown quite fond of you Ryan and you’re welcome to fight your undeniable attraction to me all you want, but it’s not going to make the killing stop. Know what will?”

 

Ryan let out a small gasp, rising to sit on his knees, “Putting you and all your little apprentice psychos behind bars?”

 

“No.” Joe shook his head as if receiving an incomplete answer to a complicated question. “I wasn’t dishonest when I said this was all for you. It’s so that you, Claire, Joey and I can be a family. Once we’re together all this,” he slid the knife across the floor to the waiting hands of a follower, “will end. You do want it to end, don’t you?”

 

Ryan snorted, twisting his head from Joe’s touch.

 

“Oh please, this isn’t about me or your wife or your son. This is about you wanting to be Professor Carroll during the day and serial killer Joe Carroll the rest of the time. You’re a selfish, sociopath FUCK and I’m embarrassed at myself for not seeing it right off the bat. If you think for one minute I’m going to help you find Claire you’re more delusional than I thought.”

 

Joe sighed, “Well if you won‘t change your mind…” He caught the gaze of someone over Ryan’s shoulder and within moments the detective found himself being hauled to his feet. “We might as well have a little fun before I change it for you.”

 

For the first time Ryan felt his bravado wavering. Joe sounded like he did the night Ryan tried to end things only to wind up pressing a kiss to Joe’s mouth before sneaking out the back so Claire wouldn’t see him with his clothes wrinkled and his hair sticking up. He could tell just by looking at him that Joe was thinking of it too. The last thing Ryan saw was a grin before a pillowcase came over his head and he was tossed into a windowless room.

 

Downstairs Joe clapped his hands together.

 

“Now that that’s taken care of. What chapter are we on?”


End file.
